It has been a long time since I’ve posted (is anyone even watching?) because work has been just killer lately. This past month I spent a crazy amount of time working on a system to do automatic opinion analysis for the NTCIR Opinion Analysis Pilot Task. I submitted my results yesterday, and I can probably drop back down to regular work week hours now.

So today, for the first time in ages, I came home before 10 and started watching some TV that I’ve been downloading. First up is a Japanese show that I was interested in. The main reason is because of the actress Becky, about whom I have written before. She’s the main actress in the show Anna-san’s Omame, which has a bit of a suggestive title. While it can mean “Anna’s bean”, it can also mean clitoris.

Anyway, the story is about Anna, a nice normal woman dating a nice normal guy, and Anna’s friend, Riri, who misunderstands almost everything. She is convinced that Anna’s boyfriend is in love with her, and hilarity ensues. Or, in this case, not so much hilarity.

I do like that they don’t make a big deal about Becky’s being half cauacasian, but maybe that is something particular to Becky. Most of the caucasian or foreign acting talent in Japan are treated as a special case of having this particular unusual ability – being able to speak Japanese. I think with Becky, the Japanese are happy to use her in a role where they explicitly do not bring attention to her being half in a kind of intentional blindness. She still does get some crazy roles though, such as this one where she always makes outrageous misunderstandings. Her catchphrases in this show (so far I’m up to episode two) are annoying, especially ending everything with みたい〜なぁぁ〜, but it is very easy to understand, so I’ll probably leave it on while I check email and do light work. I can’t always do that with Japanese TV (especially the news!) because I have to concentrate.

I’ve downloaded one or two other current series as well, so I’ll comment on them later if I ever get through this drama.